Two poems by Rainer Maria Rilke, the Austrian turn-of-the-century spiritualist poet, came to me in answer to my sense that being is more than breath. In the first, one's breath joins a larger breathing, and we find by losing. In the second, the senses are not the most blessed; rather it's the mystery at their crossroads.

Part One, Sonnet IV

You who let yourselves feel: enter the breathing that is more than your own. Let it brush your cheeks as it divides and rejoins behind you.

Blessed ones, whole ones, you where the heart begins: You are the bow that shoots the arrows and you are the target.

Fear not the pain. Let its weight fall back into the earth; for heavy are the mountains, heavy the seas.

The trees you planted in childhood have grown too heavy. You cannot bring them along. Give yourselves to the air, to what you cannot hold.

Part Two, Sonnet XXIX

Quiet friend who has come so far, feel how your breathing makes more space around you. Let this darkness be a bell tower and you the bell. As you ring,

what batters you becomes your strength. Move back and forth into the change. What is it like, such intensity of pain? If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.

In this uncontainable night, be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses, the meaning discovered there.

And if the world has ceased to hear you, say to the silent Earth: I flow. To the rushing water, speak: I am.